At a recent marijuana reform conference in Washington, DC, Rep. TomGarrett, a freshman Republican congressman from Virginia, told a roomfull of cannabis activists that their beloved plant meant nothing to him.'I don't care about marijuana. What I do care about is liberty, justice,and economic opportunity.Rep. Tom Garrett, (R-Virginia)“I really don’t care about marijuana,” he declared.

No surprise there. Garrett, a former state prosecutor and winner of theAmerican Conservative Union’s “Defender of Liberty” award, would neverbe mistaken for an avid dabber.

But then Garrett, 45, reversed course.

“What I do care about,” he said, “is individual liberty. What I do careabout is justice. What I do care about is economic opportunity.”

And that, he said, is why six months ago he introduced HR 1227, theEnding Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2017. Garrett’s bill woulddo just what its title says: remove cannabis from the federal list ofcontrolled substances entirely and allow states to regulate it as theyplease.

A generation ago, Garrett’s position would have been almost unimaginablefor a conservative politician. At best he would have been treated as aharmless, eccentric outlier, a Ron Paul for millennials. At worst hemight have been scorned by his own party.

Freedom Caucus member Rep. Thomas Garrett, (R-VA), right, with Rep. MarkMeadows, (R-SC) speaks to reporters during a news conference inWashington, DC, on Wednesday, July 19, 2017, calling on the House torepeal the Affordable Care Act. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)But today Garrett is a rising star in conservative circles. And hispublic embrace of legalization is hardly eccentric. Garrett, along withRepublican colleagues like Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Thomas Massie(R-KY), Justin Amash (R-MI), and Matt Gaetz (R-FL), have positionedcannabis legalization as an issue aligned with their core conservativevalues—and their outspokenness is allowing many fellow conservatives torethink their long-held opposition to the issue.

Consider these signs of change:

Republican support doubled. Earlier this week, a Gallup poll found that51% of Republicans now support cannabis legalization—the first time thatsupport has crossed into a majority. Among Republicans, that’s awhopping 9-point jump from 2016 and a doubling of support since 2010.Orrin Hatch changed his mind. Hatch, the ancient senator who servesUtah, one of America’s most conservative states, came out as a medicalmarijuana advocate in dramatic fashion, giving a passionate defense ofcannabis research and medicine on the Senate floor last month.Some conservatives are framing this as their issue. In September,right-wing Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), a longtime MMJ defender, wrotea Washington Post op-ed titled “My Fellow Conservatives Should ProtectMedical Marijuana From the Government.”In red states, conservatives are pushing medical marijuana bills. Aroundthe nation, conservative legislators are introducing medical cannabislegalization measures. In Georgia, Republican state Rep. Allen Peake ledthe passage of the state’s first CBD oil law last year. Indiana’s firstmedical marijuana bill was introduced earlier this year by Republicanstate Rep. Jim Lucas, whose voting record scores 92% from the AmericanConservative Union and 100% from the National Rifle Association.Those events came nearly a year after the surprising results of theNovember 2016 election. A data dive by Leafly shortly after thathistoric vote found that conservative Trump voters in historically redstates and counties—places like North Dakota, Arkansas, and Florida—casttheir ballots overwhelmingly in favor of medical marijuana legalization.

As they have been for years, voters were ahead of politicians when itcame to cannabis. Even conservative voters.

The Top 10 Cannabis Stories of 2017: Canada & Jeff Sessions Lead the List

The Roll-Up #14: San Diego Is Winning the California Game

Jeff Sessions Leaves the Cole Memo Intact, For NowDana Rohrabacher's right-wing bona fides allowed him to pull aNixon-to-China move on legalization.Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), left, speaks next to California Lt. Gov.Gavin Newsom at a news conference in support of the Adult Use ofMarijuana Act ballot measure in San Francisco, Wednesday, May 4, 2016.(Jeff Chiu/AP)Seven years ago, legalization was largely a blue issue. A 2010 Newsweekpoll found that 55% of Democrats supported state adult-use legalization,while 72% of Republicans opposed it. In late 2017, a Gallup poll foundthat Democratic support topped 72%, while Republican support had movedfrom the mid-20s to 51%.

Seven years ago, 72% of Republicans opposed marijuana legalization.Today, 51% support it.That happened in part because legalization is moving into the mainstreamof conservative thought. More to the point, it’s moving into themainstream of young conservative thought. Rising Republican leaders likeTom Garrett aren’t advocating in favor of legalization despite theirconservative values. They’re embracing the issue because of them.

One of the main tenets of modern conservatism, Garrett says, is the ideathat “people who aren’t hurting other people should be left alone.” Andcannabis is not hurting people. “I refuse to concede that therecreational user is hurting anybody,” he says.

Republican support is up 9% in less than a year. Source: Gallup Poll.There have always been rare conservative gadflies speaking up forlegalization. Economist Milton Friedman was for it. William F. Buckleyinfamously sparked up on his sailboat beyond the territorial limit offederal law. But their positions often came off as theoretical andsymbolic, not anything they’d fight for on the ground.

Legalization’s blue tinge wasn’t merely a perception issue. It wasreality. When Rolling Stone profiled The 10 Best Politicians on PotReform in 2010, only two Republicans made the list—Dana Rohrabacher andRon Paul.

So what changed? Many factors:

Public opinion shifted. Medical marijuana is now “more popular than the4th of July,” as national political strategist Celinda Lake saidrecently. The latest Quinnipiac poll has 94% of Americans in favor oflegal medical marijuana.Legal states didn’t implode. Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Nevadawent fully legal and did not implode in a miasma of cannabis addiction.In fact, those states enjoyed booming economies, an influx of talent,and healthy populations. Legal states proved that adults could handlelegal, well-regulated cannabis.Voting data opened eyes. As Leafly documented last year, conservativeRepublican states—North Dakota, Arkansas—swung hard for legal medicalmarijuana in November 2016. Deeply conservative counties in the criticalswing state of Florida did, too.Military veterans spoke out for medical marijuana. It was easy forconservatives to dismiss legalization pleas when they came from hippies.But when combat veterans spoke up, conservatives listened. Veterans saidit helped them manage their PTSD, reduced their need for opioids, andsaved their lives.More patients told their stories. Parents, relatives, and older friendsbecame more comfortable talking about how medical marijuana helped them.That’s how Sen. Orrin Hatch’s mind changed on medical cannabis.Conservatives got hip to the internet, where they could easily accessreal, accurate information—not just federal nonsense—about cannabis andits effects.Old people died. To put it bluntly. Many of the oldest Americans, 77% ofwhom were against legalization (according to a 2010 Newsweek poll) andunlikely to change their minds, exited to the great beyond. Babyboomers, who are much more comfortable with cannabis, aged into theoldest voting demographic.Young conservatives gained more power. Younger conservative voters—forwhom legal medical marijuana was normal, no big deal—entered their 20sand 30s, and increasingly expressed their opinions on marijuana at theballot box.

Instead, he went on the record for medical marijuana. The following yearhe stood for re-election. And he won.

By getting re-elected after publicly embracing legalization, Rohrabachershowed that cannabis wasn't a career killer.Immunized by his connections to President Ronald Reagan (for whomRohrabacher worked as a speechwriter) and his reputation as a right-wingcowboy, Rohrabacher stood on solid conservative ground when he arguedthat the federal government should leave his state, and its MMJpatients, the hell alone. It was a classic Nixon-to-China move.

By retaining his seat every two years, Rohrabacher proved thatlegalization wasn’t a career-killer for conservatives. In 2002, heintroduced the first Congressional resolution to grant state medicalmarijuana programs protection from federal prosecution. Twelve yearslater it finally passed, with bipartisan support, as theRohrabacher–Farr budget amendment.

Rohrabacher was in the writer’s room when Reagan’s toughest war-on-drugsspeeches were crafted in the 1980s. Today, he’s on Capitol Hill fightingto protect cannabis legalization in 29 states. Say what you will abouthis other views and his current Russian troubles. On cannabislegalization, Rohrabacher has been a courageous leader for nearly twodecades. He’s a bridge between generations. Without him there would beno Tom Garrett, no Allen Peake, and no Matt Gaetz.

But so many conservative votes have turned in favor of cannabis—or atleast appear to be up for grabs—that one of the nation’s leadinglegalization advocacy groups employs a full-time lobbyist to focus onconservative outreach. When Congress is in session, Don Murphy prowlsthe halls of the Senate and House office buildings, seeking to createRepublican allies on behalf of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).

“If Republicans think they’re going to be defeated at the polls becauseof this issue, that’s the opposite of my experience,” Murphy told merecently. “I talk to lawmakers about legalization in terms of itsconsistency with their positions. You may not be for medical marijuana,but do you really think patients should lose their gun rights over it?”

MPP’s Don Murphy, campaigning for Florida’s Amendment 2 in 2016: ‘Thisissue won’t defeat you.’Twenty-three years ago, Murphy ran for the Maryland Legislature as alaw-and-order Republican. “My wife had been held up in an armedrobbery,” he explained. “I ended up on a House judiciary committee, andI was voting to lock up everybody.”

One conversation opened his mind. “I had a guy come to me in theLegislature. He was a former Green Beret and a local farmer. He told mehe was using marijuana with a doctor’s approval for non-Hodgkin’slymphoma. It was helping him eat, and he was finally gaining weight. Heasked me: ‘Do you think I’m a criminal?’ ‘Of course not,’ I said. ‘Thelaw does,’ he told me. That’s when I thought, well, he’s got a point.”

“That’s how I became the accidental advocate.”

Murphy eventually connected with officials at the Marijuana PolicyProject, liked what they did, and talked himself into a job as thegroup’s director of conservative outreach. In that role, he’s helpingshape the conservative conversation around cannabis.

Talking the TalkWhen it comes to reaching conservatives, language and framing can makeall the difference. Some conservative leaders, Murphy says, “are 10thAmendment people.” They’re states’ rights supporters who might agreethat each state should be allowed to handle cannabis as it sees fit.(The 10th Amendment to the US Constitution is the “reserved powers”clause, which holds that “powers not delegated to the United States bythe Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved tothe States respectively, or to the people.”)

It's hard to argue for states' rights, and stand against legalstate-regulated cannabis.“South Carolina, their House members are strong 10th Amendment people,”Murphy told me.

The call of liberty also resounds well with many conservatives onCapitol Hill, who agree with Murphy in principle but may not want to beseen supporting marijuana because of its lingering cultural taint.

“I spoke with one member, who flies the Gadsden flag”—the Don’t Tread onMe rattlesnake—“outside his door and asked, ‘How come you’re not so goodwhen it comes to drug policy?’ He answered me, ‘You keep doing whatyou’re doing, and I won’t get in your way.’”

A lot of his work, Murphy says, consists of showing how legalizationembodies a conservative’s existing values and beliefs about freedom. “Ifthis, then why not that?” he often asks Republicans.

Personal Stories Open MindsAnn Lee, the 87-year-old founder of Republicans Against MarijuanaProhibition (RAMP), is a Texas conservative who spent most of her lifeassuming that “the lies the government put out” about cannabis were true.

People are often surprised to hear that 27% of NORML members identify asconservative Republicans.Then in 1990, her son Richard was injured in an accident and found thatcannabis helped him recover. She saw with her own eyes that it was true.Richard Lee went on to create Oaksterdam University, the groundbreakingcannabis educational institution in Oakland, California. Ann created herown group, RAMP, in 2012.

For Lee, the tipping point came in 2012, shortly after she and herhusband attended a five-person NORML panel and realized three of thefive panelists were Republicans. The next day, she founded RAMP. “Wemodeled ourselves after Law Enforcement Against Prohibition,” she said.

Ann Lee: Her own son’s experience changed her mind.That surprise is not uncommon among those who attend a NORML event. Iexperienced it myself at the group’s Washington, DC, conference inSeptember, when NORML Political Director Justin Strekal revealed that27% of the group’s members identified as conservative Republicans (38%are progressive Democrats, and 35% identify as independents).

In his lobbying work, Strekal has learned how to speak the language ofboth progressives and conservatives to reach them on the issue ofcannabis. For progressives, it’s often an issue of social justice andracial disparities in enforcement. For conservatives, it touches thevalues of freedom and liberty.

“This is an issue of freedom,” Strekal says. “It’s about freedom fromgovernment overreach. Who decides what we can and can’t ingest in theprivacy of our own homes?”

RELATED STORYMeet Ann Lee, the Texas Republican Calling for Legalization in ClevelandThe Cannabis Business is BusinessIt’s hard to tell where Bruce Nassau falls on the political spectrum.Maybe that’s why he’s such a good entrepreneur. Nassau, the owner ofColorado-based TruCannabis, is also the head of the Marijuana IndustryGroup, a leading cannabis industry advocacy organization. Before he gotinto cannabis, Nassau made a small fortune in the cable televisionindustry. Now he spends much of his time talking to policymakers aboutcannabis.

“I find that many conservatives are very easy to work with once you sitdown and talk face to face,” he says. “They begin to realize that youdon’t have five eyes. They see that you’re a human being, you haveconcerns for public safety, patients, and children.”

That’s an idea conservative leaders can get behind. A 2016 Leaflyinvestigation found that nearly 120,000 American jobs were supported bylegal cannabis. By 2017 that figure had jumped to 149,000.

The cannabis industry acts as its own skills-training program, Nassau adds.

“We bring in a lot of people to work for us who might not typically beinterested in working in other industries,” he says. “There are plentyof people who identify as countercultural, who don’t consider themselvestraditional businesspeople. They might be turned off by the idea ofworking at the Home Depot or Macy’s. But when they work for us, theylearn customer service skills, they learn how to operate a cashregister, they learn how important a supply chain is. Pretty soonthey’re skilled employees who have the ability to work where they want,live productive lives, and pay taxes.”

In legal states like Washington, Colorado, and Oregon, young budtendersand cannabis growers are gaining skills and experience, then going outon their own and creating their own businesses.

“That,” says Nassau, “goes to the heart of a conservative’s values.”

RELATED STORYCannabis Jobs Count: Legal Marijuana Supports 149,304 AmericansMore Support Is Hiding, WaitingTom Garrett believes there’s more conservative support for cannabisreform out there, just waiting for the water to warm up. “Of the 435votes in Congress, we’d probably have 235 in favor of getting thefederal government out of the the marijuana scheduling business—if itgot to the floor,” he says.

'The fight now is in the back rooms. The fight is to get a hearing andget it to the floor.'Rep. Tom Garrett, R-Virginia“The fight is in the back rooms,” he adds. “The fight is to get ahearing. There are a series of gatekeepers,” he says, referring to theHouse committee chairs who, because those positions are oftenseniority-based, tend to be members of the older, anti-legalizationgeneration. “And we need to bring political pressure to the gatekeepers.”mcc

Even some of those who publicly oppose legalization acknowledge the seachange that’s underway. During a lobbying event in September, NORMLPolitical Director Justin Strekal ran into Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) inthe Russell Senate Office Building. McCain asked about the funny-lookinglapel pin on Strekal’s jacket. “That’s a cannabis leaf, senator,”Strekal said, and gave his best pitch for the reform measures nowcirculating on Capitol Hill.

McCain, an old-school prohibitionist who has remained mostly silent oncannabis reform, smiled and parted amicably.

Post by a425coupleLiberty, Jobs, & Freedom: How Cannabis Became a Conservative IssuePoliticsCannabis 101Strains & ProductsHealthCanadaPop CultureScience & TechFood, Travel & SexIndustryLeafly ListPodcastsBRUCE BARCOTTAt a recent marijuana reform conference in Washington, DC, Rep. TomGarrett, a freshman Republican congressman from Virginia, told a roomfull of cannabis activists that their beloved plant meant nothing to him.'I don't care about marijuana. What I do care about is liberty, justice,and economic opportunity.Rep. Tom Garrett, (R-Virginia)“I really don’t care about marijuana,” he declared.No surprise there. Garrett, a former state prosecutor and winner of theAmerican Conservative Union’s “Defender of Liberty” award, would neverbe mistaken for an avid dabber.But then Garrett, 45, reversed course.“What I do care about,” he said, “is individual liberty. What I do careabout is justice. What I do care about is economic opportunity.”And that, he said, is why six months ago he introduced HR 1227, theEnding Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2017. Garrett’s bill woulddo just what its title says: remove cannabis from the federal list ofcontrolled substances entirely and allow states to regulate it as theyplease.A generation ago, Garrett’s position would have been almost unimaginablefor a conservative politician. At best he would have been treated as aharmless, eccentric outlier, a Ron Paul for millennials. At worst hemight have been scorned by his own party.Freedom Caucus member Rep. Thomas Garrett, (R-VA), right, with Rep. MarkMeadows, (R-SC) speaks to reporters during a news conference inWashington, DC, on Wednesday, July 19, 2017, calling on the House torepeal the Affordable Care Act. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)But today Garrett is a rising star in conservative circles. And hispublic embrace of legalization is hardly eccentric. Garrett, along withRepublican colleagues like Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Thomas Massie(R-KY), Justin Amash (R-MI), and Matt Gaetz (R-FL), have positionedcannabis legalization as an issue aligned with their core conservativevalues—and their outspokenness is allowing many fellow conservatives torethink their long-held opposition to the issue.Republican support doubled. Earlier this week, a Gallup poll found that51% of Republicans now support cannabis legalization—the first time thatsupport has crossed into a majority. Among Republicans, that’s awhopping 9-point jump from 2016 and a doubling of support since 2010.Orrin Hatch changed his mind. Hatch, the ancient senator who servesUtah, one of America’s most conservative states, came out as a medicalmarijuana advocate in dramatic fashion, giving a passionate defense ofcannabis research and medicine on the Senate floor last month.Some conservatives are framing this as their issue. In September,a Washington Post op-ed titled “My Fellow Conservatives Should ProtectMedical Marijuana From the Government.”In red states, conservatives are pushing medical marijuana bills. Aroundthe nation, conservative legislators are introducing medical cannabislegalization measures. In Georgia, Republican state Rep. Allen Peake ledthe passage of the state’s first CBD oil law last year. Indiana’s firstmedical marijuana bill was introduced earlier this year by Republicanstate Rep. Jim Lucas, whose voting record scores 92% from the AmericanConservative Union and 100% from the National Rifle Association.Those events came nearly a year after the surprising results of theNovember 2016 election. A data dive by Leafly shortly after thathistoric vote found that conservative Trump voters in historically redstates and counties—places like North Dakota, Arkansas, and Florida—casttheir ballots overwhelmingly in favor of medical marijuana legalization.As they have been for years, voters were ahead of politicians when itcame to cannabis. Even conservative voters.RELATED STORYData Dive: Legalization No Longer a Partisan Issue, Election Data ShowMore Cannabis PoliticsCalifornia Legalization Brings Host of Environmental RulesThe Top 10 Cannabis Stories of 2017: Canada & Jeff Sessions Lead the ListThe Roll-Up #14: San Diego Is Winning the California GameJeff Sessions Leaves the Cole Memo Intact, For NowDana Rohrabacher's right-wing bona fides allowed him to pull aNixon-to-China move on legalization.Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), left, speaks next to California Lt. Gov.Gavin Newsom at a news conference in support of the Adult Use ofMarijuana Act ballot measure in San Francisco, Wednesday, May 4, 2016.(Jeff Chiu/AP)Seven years ago, legalization was largely a blue issue. A 2010 Newsweekpoll found that 55% of Democrats supported state adult-use legalization,while 72% of Republicans opposed it. In late 2017, a Gallup poll foundthat Democratic support topped 72%, while Republican support had movedfrom the mid-20s to 51%.Seven years ago, 72% of Republicans opposed marijuana legalization.Today, 51% support it.That happened in part because legalization is moving into the mainstreamof conservative thought. More to the point, it’s moving into themainstream of young conservative thought. Rising Republican leaders likeTom Garrett aren’t advocating in favor of legalization despite theirconservative values. They’re embracing the issue because of them.One of the main tenets of modern conservatism, Garrett says, is the ideathat “people who aren’t hurting other people should be left alone.” Andcannabis is not hurting people. “I refuse to concede that therecreational user is hurting anybody,” he says.Republican support is up 9% in less than a year. Source: Gallup Poll.There have always been rare conservative gadflies speaking up forlegalization. Economist Milton Friedman was for it. William F. Buckleyinfamously sparked up on his sailboat beyond the territorial limit offederal law. But their positions often came off as theoretical andsymbolic, not anything they’d fight for on the ground.Legalization’s blue tinge wasn’t merely a perception issue. It wasreality. When Rolling Stone profiled The 10 Best Politicians on PotReform in 2010, only two Republicans made the list—Dana Rohrabacher andRon Paul.Public opinion shifted. Medical marijuana is now “more popular than the4th of July,” as national political strategist Celinda Lake saidrecently. The latest Quinnipiac poll has 94% of Americans in favor oflegal medical marijuana.Legal states didn’t implode. Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Nevadawent fully legal and did not implode in a miasma of cannabis addiction.In fact, those states enjoyed booming economies, an influx of talent,and healthy populations. Legal states proved that adults could handlelegal, well-regulated cannabis.Voting data opened eyes. As Leafly documented last year, conservativeRepublican states—North Dakota, Arkansas—swung hard for legal medicalmarijuana in November 2016. Deeply conservative counties in the criticalswing state of Florida did, too.Military veterans spoke out for medical marijuana. It was easy forconservatives to dismiss legalization pleas when they came from hippies.But when combat veterans spoke up, conservatives listened. Veterans saidit helped them manage their PTSD, reduced their need for opioids, andsaved their lives.More patients told their stories. Parents, relatives, and older friendsbecame more comfortable talking about how medical marijuana helped them.That’s how Sen. Orrin Hatch’s mind changed on medical cannabis.Conservatives got hip to the internet, where they could easily accessreal, accurate information—not just federal nonsense—about cannabis andits effects.Old people died. To put it bluntly. Many of the oldest Americans, 77% ofwhom were against legalization (according to a 2010 Newsweek poll) andunlikely to change their minds, exited to the great beyond. Babyboomers, who are much more comfortable with cannabis, aged into theoldest voting demographic.Young conservatives gained more power. Younger conservative voters—forwhom legal medical marijuana was normal, no big deal—entered their 20sand 30s, and increasingly expressed their opinions on marijuana at theballot box.RELATED STORYData Dive: Legalization No Longer a Partisan Issue, Election Data ShowThe Pioneer: Dana RohrabacherThe cornerstone of the conservative legalization movement has been, andcontinues to be, California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. In the late1990s, when powerful Republicans like Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Sen. GeorgeVoinovich (R-OH), and Rep. Robert Barr (R-GA) howled against the passageof state medical marijuana laws, Rohrabacher, a conservative truebeliever from Orange County, chose a different path.Rohrabacher: Re-elected after coming out for medical marijuana in 1999.Though his own district overwhelmingly opposed California’s 1996 Prop.215 (which legalized medical marijuana), Rohrabacher opted to voteagainst a non-binding Congressional resolution opposing medical cannabisin 1999.Instead, he went on the record for medical marijuana. The following yearhe stood for re-election. And he won.By getting re-elected after publicly embracing legalization, Rohrabachershowed that cannabis wasn't a career killer.Immunized by his connections to President Ronald Reagan (for whomRohrabacher worked as a speechwriter) and his reputation as a right-wingcowboy, Rohrabacher stood on solid conservative ground when he arguedthat the federal government should leave his state, and its MMJpatients, the hell alone. It was a classic Nixon-to-China move.By retaining his seat every two years, Rohrabacher proved thatlegalization wasn’t a career-killer for conservatives. In 2002, heintroduced the first Congressional resolution to grant state medicalmarijuana programs protection from federal prosecution. Twelve yearslater it finally passed, with bipartisan support, as theRohrabacher–Farr budget amendment.Rohrabacher was in the writer’s room when Reagan’s toughest war-on-drugsspeeches were crafted in the 1980s. Today, he’s on Capitol Hill fightingto protect cannabis legalization in 29 states. Say what you will abouthis other views and his current Russian troubles. On cannabislegalization, Rohrabacher has been a courageous leader for nearly twodecades. He’s a bridge between generations. Without him there would beno Tom Garrett, no Allen Peake, and no Matt Gaetz.RELATED STORYWe Speak with Rep. Allen Peake, Georgia’s Medical Cannabis BulldogThe New Normal: ‘Conservative Outreach Director’I don’t want to overstate the claim. Things are changing, but moreDemocrats than Republicans favor legalization—among both voters andelected officials. Conservatives like Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), Rep.Andy Harris (R-MD), and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) remain dead setagainst state legalization, and they are currently blocking legislationto allow cannabis banking, legal regulation in the District of Columbia,and medical marijuana protections, respectively.But so many conservative votes have turned in favor of cannabis—or atleast appear to be up for grabs—that one of the nation’s leadinglegalization advocacy groups employs a full-time lobbyist to focus onconservative outreach. When Congress is in session, Don Murphy prowlsthe halls of the Senate and House office buildings, seeking to createRepublican allies on behalf of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).“If Republicans think they’re going to be defeated at the polls becauseof this issue, that’s the opposite of my experience,” Murphy told merecently. “I talk to lawmakers about legalization in terms of itsconsistency with their positions. You may not be for medical marijuana,but do you really think patients should lose their gun rights over it?”MPP’s Don Murphy, campaigning for Florida’s Amendment 2 in 2016: ‘Thisissue won’t defeat you.’Twenty-three years ago, Murphy ran for the Maryland Legislature as alaw-and-order Republican. “My wife had been held up in an armedrobbery,” he explained. “I ended up on a House judiciary committee, andI was voting to lock up everybody.”One conversation opened his mind. “I had a guy come to me in theLegislature. He was a former Green Beret and a local farmer. He told mehe was using marijuana with a doctor’s approval for non-Hodgkin’slymphoma. It was helping him eat, and he was finally gaining weight. Heasked me: ‘Do you think I’m a criminal?’ ‘Of course not,’ I said. ‘Thelaw does,’ he told me. That’s when I thought, well, he’s got a point.”“That’s how I became the accidental advocate.”Murphy eventually connected with officials at the Marijuana PolicyProject, liked what they did, and talked himself into a job as thegroup’s director of conservative outreach. In that role, he’s helpingshape the conservative conversation around cannabis.Talking the TalkWhen it comes to reaching conservatives, language and framing can makeall the difference. Some conservative leaders, Murphy says, “are 10thAmendment people.” They’re states’ rights supporters who might agreethat each state should be allowed to handle cannabis as it sees fit.(The 10th Amendment to the US Constitution is the “reserved powers”clause, which holds that “powers not delegated to the United States bythe Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved tothe States respectively, or to the people.”)It's hard to argue for states' rights, and stand against legalstate-regulated cannabis.“South Carolina, their House members are strong 10th Amendment people,”Murphy told me.The call of liberty also resounds well with many conservatives onCapitol Hill, who agree with Murphy in principle but may not want to beseen supporting marijuana because of its lingering cultural taint.“I spoke with one member, who flies the Gadsden flag”—the Don’t Tread onMe rattlesnake—“outside his door and asked, ‘How come you’re not so goodwhen it comes to drug policy?’ He answered me, ‘You keep doing whatyou’re doing, and I won’t get in your way.’”A lot of his work, Murphy says, consists of showing how legalizationembodies a conservative’s existing values and beliefs about freedom. “Ifthis, then why not that?” he often asks Republicans.Personal Stories Open MindsAnn Lee, the 87-year-old founder of Republicans Against MarijuanaProhibition (RAMP), is a Texas conservative who spent most of her lifeassuming that “the lies the government put out” about cannabis were true.People are often surprised to hear that 27% of NORML members identify asconservative Republicans.Then in 1990, her son Richard was injured in an accident and found thatcannabis helped him recover. She saw with her own eyes that it was true.Richard Lee went on to create Oaksterdam University, the groundbreakingcannabis educational institution in Oakland, California. Ann created herown group, RAMP, in 2012.For Lee, the tipping point came in 2012, shortly after she and herhusband attended a five-person NORML panel and realized three of thefive panelists were Republicans. The next day, she founded RAMP. “Wemodeled ourselves after Law Enforcement Against Prohibition,” she said.Ann Lee: Her own son’s experience changed her mind.That surprise is not uncommon among those who attend a NORML event. Iexperienced it myself at the group’s Washington, DC, conference inSeptember, when NORML Political Director Justin Strekal revealed that27% of the group’s members identified as conservative Republicans (38%are progressive Democrats, and 35% identify as independents).In his lobbying work, Strekal has learned how to speak the language ofboth progressives and conservatives to reach them on the issue ofcannabis. For progressives, it’s often an issue of social justice andracial disparities in enforcement. For conservatives, it touches thevalues of freedom and liberty.“This is an issue of freedom,” Strekal says. “It’s about freedom fromgovernment overreach. Who decides what we can and can’t ingest in theprivacy of our own homes?”RELATED STORYMeet Ann Lee, the Texas Republican Calling for Legalization in ClevelandThe Cannabis Business is BusinessIt’s hard to tell where Bruce Nassau falls on the political spectrum.Maybe that’s why he’s such a good entrepreneur. Nassau, the owner ofColorado-based TruCannabis, is also the head of the Marijuana IndustryGroup, a leading cannabis industry advocacy organization. Before he gotinto cannabis, Nassau made a small fortune in the cable televisionindustry. Now he spends much of his time talking to policymakers aboutcannabis.“I find that many conservatives are very easy to work with once you sitdown and talk face to face,” he says. “They begin to realize that youdon’t have five eyes. They see that you’re a human being, you haveconcerns for public safety, patients, and children.”'We create jobs,' says Bruce Nassau. 'We create opportunity.' That's anidea most conservatives can get behind.Nassau approaches the issue as an entrepreneur, so jobs are one of hisfavorite talking points. “We create jobs,” he says. “We create opportunity.”That’s an idea conservative leaders can get behind. A 2016 Leaflyinvestigation found that nearly 120,000 American jobs were supported bylegal cannabis. By 2017 that figure had jumped to 149,000.The cannabis industry acts as its own skills-training program, Nassau adds.“We bring in a lot of people to work for us who might not typically beinterested in working in other industries,” he says. “There are plentyof people who identify as countercultural, who don’t consider themselvestraditional businesspeople. They might be turned off by the idea ofworking at the Home Depot or Macy’s. But when they work for us, theylearn customer service skills, they learn how to operate a cashregister, they learn how important a supply chain is. Pretty soonthey’re skilled employees who have the ability to work where they want,live productive lives, and pay taxes.”In legal states like Washington, Colorado, and Oregon, young budtendersand cannabis growers are gaining skills and experience, then going outon their own and creating their own businesses.“That,” says Nassau, “goes to the heart of a conservative’s values.”RELATED STORYCannabis Jobs Count: Legal Marijuana Supports 149,304 AmericansMore Support Is Hiding, WaitingTom Garrett believes there’s more conservative support for cannabisreform out there, just waiting for the water to warm up. “Of the 435votes in Congress, we’d probably have 235 in favor of getting thefederal government out of the the marijuana scheduling business—if itgot to the floor,” he says.'The fight now is in the back rooms. The fight is to get a hearing andget it to the floor.'Rep. Tom Garrett, R-Virginia“The fight is in the back rooms,” he adds. “The fight is to get ahearing. There are a series of gatekeepers,” he says, referring to theHouse committee chairs who, because those positions are oftenseniority-based, tend to be members of the older, anti-legalizationgeneration. “And we need to bring political pressure to thegatekeepers.”mccEven some of those who publicly oppose legalization acknowledge the seachange that’s underway. During a lobbying event in September, NORMLPolitical Director Justin Strekal ran into Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) inthe Russell Senate Office Building. McCain asked about the funny-lookinglapel pin on Strekal’s jacket. “That’s a cannabis leaf, senator,”Strekal said, and gave his best pitch for the reform measures nowcirculating on Capitol Hill.McCain, an old-school prohibitionist who has remained mostly silent oncannabis reform, smiled and parted amicably.“Well,” said the senator, “you folks are winning.”RELATED STORYOn Legalization’s 5th Anniversary, Here’s What We’ve Learned(Featured photo at top: Jae C. Hong/AP)CONSERVATIVESDANA ROHRABACHERLEGALIZATIONMEDICAL MARIJUANAREPUBLICANSTOM GARRETTBruce BarcottBruce is Leafly’s deputy editor. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and author ofWeed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America.https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/liberty-jobs-freedom-how-cannabis-became-a-conservative-issue

The comments

Paul Sorensen • 2 months agoI'm glad to declare myself as a pro pot Republican. It's a no brainer.Individual rights come before everything else. What Jefferson called'natural rights' or 'human rights', need to be universally accepted.Life's better when you don't waste time judging other people. BTW. thereare lots of us out there

2•Reply•Share ›Avatarfarmerlion • 6 days agoI'm also a PRO CANNABIS REPUBLICAN, If you want to get elected in NorthDakota in 2018. You better be pro cannabis as well. The fence riders anddouble talkers have already shown their colors. Enjoy the balance ofyour terms. You won't be re elected. Have a nice day, Merry Christmas,Happy New Years GOOD BYE!!! Welcome legalized cannabis to North Dakota.Home growers with a free open market for sales. State taxes will beoverflowing. Many disabled and retired residents will be able tosupplement their incomes with fine home grown craft cannabis's. Thedispensaries and large licensed growers will compete in a fair openmarket. Everybody wins! Peace

1•Reply•Share ›AvatarJoseph Muhammad • 2 months agoLol, Bruce. Republicans may have been against de-illegalization forquite some time but conservatives never were. Republican party is notconservatives. Democrat party is not liberals. Your article reflectsthree things: opportunists (a.k.a. politicians) capitalizing on apopular point of view, investors in pharmaceutical companies seekingcannabis grower licenses so they can over-pesticide it and GMO it and inboth cases destroy its medicinal properties, and a few people who havegenuinely changed their views after science research has shown howvaluable cannabis is to human health.

Don't get me wrong Bruce Barcott (article author) I enjoyed your articleimmensely but you need to make an edit that mentions the rest of thecannabis legal states, e.g., Alaska (how did you forget Alaska whichlegalized cannabis in 2014), California, Nevada, Maine and Massachusetts.

•Reply•Share ›AvatarStimpy Ticobird • a month agoArizona legalization failed when the airwaves were plastered withmis-information and false horror story political ads about how thingswere going so horribly wrong in Colorado. All lies or half truths.Wonder who was behind that propaganda -- liquor companies?Pharmaceutical companies in fear of losing pain killer andanti-depressant sales? The Narco-Industrial complex?

•Reply•Share ›Avatarlovingc Stimpy • a month agoIt was the manufacturer of opiate based drugs that have led to theaddiction and deaths of thousands! Insys Therapeutics was the culpritand the CEO has been in a lot of legal trouble since then due to hispredatory pricing ideas.

•Reply•Share ›AvatarStimpy lovingc • a month agoGood point. I wouldn't be surprised if Insys helped fund that anti-potcampaign. They are local to AZ.

1•Reply•Share ›AvatarJackson Shredder lovingc • a month agoThats it in a nutshell !!!